Bid4aCure is an effort by a group of concerned residents of the popular online virtual world of Second Life to raise both awareness and contributions for the real-world organizations: The American Diabetes Association and Diabetes UK. This June we held our third Bid4aCure benefit drive and it was our most successful one yet, having raised over 1.7 million Linden dollars! Our deepest appreciation goes out to all of our Sponsors and those who donated so generously to this effort.

If you want to know more about the benefit events that took place during the month of June 2009, click the Events link above. To learn more about Bid4aCure, our past fundraising drives, and view letters we have received from the American Diabetes Assoc. and Diabetes UK, click on the About link. Although our 2009 Bid4aCure drive has ended in Second Life, you may still donate to these organizations directly by clicking on their logos at the top right of this page.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

I'm speechless... Susan did posts about both deaths.Just heard about Michael Jackson and had heard about Farrah Fawcet in the afternoon.

R.I.P.

Update:

Brian Oxman is saying at CNN that Michael Jackson was taking too much prescription drugs and that he has advised the family.He is a close friend of Michael.

Update 2:Philip Dawdy, Furious Seasons's journalist, has written a post about Michael Jackson cocktail of drugs:

"That he died of what appears to be sudden cardiac death makes me wonder greatly about what his toxicology results will be."

And this article about CNN and Fox criticizing long-term use of antidepressants:

"That said, I want to make it clear that I am not blaming Zoloft and Paxil for Jackson's death. I am not saying that taking either drug will give any specific person a heart attack. But I am saying that, for now, that the two anti-depressants are inextricably entwined and linked to the death of MJ."

This is from Independent on October, 2006 when Peter Breggin was in Ireland and I've copied it all because he raises many issues related with drugging children that are still not unfold.I didn't know that Cymbalta, the antidepressant that Traci Johnson was taking in the clinical trial, was being tested for "stress urinary incontinence" and she was not informed that it was also being tested as an antidepressant.

'The greatest child abuse of our time is the mass drugging of our children'

By Gareth O'CallaghanSunday October 15 2006

TRACI Johnson wanted with all her heart to go back to college. She was a tall 19-year-old brunette with stunning good looks, and a spirited, determined young woman.

She was healthy, with no history of physical or emotional difficulties, such as depression. Those closest to her described her as upbeat, an active volunteer and someone who loved life.

She had enrolled as a voluntary participant in a trial to test a new drug for "stress urinary incontinence" for which she was paid US$750 a day - the money she intended to put towards her college fees.

She commenced taking the drug in January 2004. Four weeks later, Traci Johnson hanged herself using a scarf in the shower room.

By local state laws, she was not old enough to legally drink a beer; she could not even rent a car. Yet she was deemed mature enough to decide to take an experimental drug on a daily basis.

"The real child abusers are my colleagues in psychiatry who have led the way," were his exact words. Then he slowly repeats it.

"They are child abusers. The greatest child abuse of our time is the mass drugging of our children."

Having reflected on the words he chooses to describe doctors who prescribe harmful psychiatric drugs to young children and teenagers in order to "cure" depression or Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD), I find he makes sense.

His time in court over many years has honed his ability for instant dramatic effect. He has acted as a witness in defence of individuals who took cases against the giant drug companies they claimed ruined their lives and almost stole their sanity and their will to live.

Many of them were awarded large fortunes in what became highly publicised landmark cases in the States. But, more important than money, they got back their dignity and their identity.

"I've had dozens of cases of anti-depressant-induced violence, suicide, psychosis, mania. In one extreme case, a man knocked down a policeman with his car in order to grab the policeman's gun to shoot himself; in another case, a man drove his car into a barrier in an attempt to kill his wife, whom he thought had an alien lurking inside her; in both cases these were clearly caused by the drugs.

"People become victims of the 'Spellbinding Effect', as I call it, leaving them at the mercy of these drugs because they don't realise they're being harmed; and they can even get a false impression that they're doing better than ever before, when in fact they 'The FDA gave a legal rationale for its silence: "Some clinical trial data are considered 'trade secrets', or commercially protected information, and thus are exempted from release under the Freedom of Information Act"'

have an unrealistic euphoria."

Breggin walks his own talk. It would be difficult to contradict the statements that are flying like a professional boxer's jabs and hooks, because everything he says is based on almost 50 years of well-practised research. But is depression not all about common sense?

"The problem is that the common sense approach, which is also the most profound approach to depression, leaves biological psychiatry high and dry, because [psychiatry] treats people as if they're broken mechanical devices that can be tinkered with by a person who knows much less about the brain than the average mechanic knows about your car.

"They take the most complex subtle human problems - how to find meaningful work, how to find love, how to live in a world full of violence and disappointments, how to overcome childhood experiences of abuse and oppression - all of these subtle difficult problems that are human problems can be resolved through a whole range of human alternatives from counselling to philosophy and religion, and they treat them in the most ignorant way as mechanical issues."

Pharmaceutical companies and many of his erstwhile colleagues have not disguised their contempt for him since the day he stepped out from the elite ranks of his closely guarded profession.

He says that new pharmaceuticals are branded as wonder drugs with certain beneficial properties. When rivals catch up and start making the same claims for their brands, the PR changes and even greater claims are made.

"So it's all games with words, played to influence the public," Breggin claims.

Breggin, who turned 70 recently, has spent much of his professional life criticising what his own profession stands for, namely the trigger-happy tendency on the part of many doctors and psychiatrists to prescribe harmful, addictive drugs for depression - a condition that is far more receptive to a loving, expressive, empathic relationship.

"We know now, and it's shown in scientific research that these drugs do cause addiction, and they predispose youngsters when they get into their 20s to use cocaine because their brains have become conditioned by [named brand drugs] which are in the same class of stimulant as cocaine.

"These drugs, for the first few weeks, usually have a flattening effect on the child's behaviour. They replace spontaneous behaviour with compulsive behaviour. It is the suppression of normal brain function."

HE IS the author of 20 bestselling books; one of them, Toxic Psychiatry (1991), made for tough reading. It was the first time we were told head-on about the dangers of some anti-depressants possibly leading to suicide. It took until 2004 for some manufacturers to accept this and include such a warning on the drug's accompanying instructions leaflet.

He says that some drug companies have "led the way in suppressing critics and research. They control the drug market - they've led the way in that regard. I'm not sure what the answer's going to be, because the battle is so lopsided, but then David did bring down Goliath".

So what's all this scientific stuff about chemical imbalances in the brain? I ask.

"There is no evidence whatsoever that depression is caused by a biochemical imbalance. There is none!" He says it is an idea promoted by certain drug companies.

"The only biochemical imbalances that we know of in the brains of people labelled 'mental patients' are the ones caused by psychiatric drugs and electric shock."

Some anti-depressants, he says, have been dubbed "the magic pills". In the States it was hip and trendy to be "popping" these pills and attending "a shrink".

One in five Irish adults takes Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) anti-depressants (CSO statistics, 2006). That's over half a million people. Are you surprised by such a high figure? I ask.

He sighs. "I was hoping that the Irish had more sense than the Americans - but in this regard it sounds a lot like America. It's a great misfortune, because there's actually very little valid scientific evidence for the effectiveness of these drugs. The way they have gotten approval in the United States is by ignoring all the ways they are no better than a sugar pill, while focusing on the small number of very limited studies that show they are only little better than a sugar pill!

"On the other hand, they cause a lot of harm. They call this the Risk Benefit Ratio. The risk of taking these drugs is rather large; all kinds of physical and psychiatric problems result from taking the drugs, while the benefit is usually small "

Drug companies in the US have paid out millions insettlements.

Breggin was one of the medical experts who evaluated cases on behalf of the claimants, including cases in which individuals died of acute diabetic coma or pancreatitis while being treated with a drug. There have also been lawsuits from people who claimed they suffered severe mental and behavioral abnormalities, including mania, suicidal tendencies, violence, and the onset of a condition called Tardive Dyskinesia (permanent drug-induced abnormal physical behaviour, as a result of taking certain prescribed drugs, characterised by involuntary jerky movements of the face, tongue, jaws, trunk, and limbs).

The drug industry says there is a legitimate concern that the fear surrounding their drugs could mean some patients are not prescribed them. They say it is important that necessary anti-depressant treatments are available to all patients who need them, including children and adolescents, and they say: "Information about the safe use of these products is made publicly available."

Is it really? I don't think so. Seven months prior to the international launch of the drug she was testing, the news of Traci Johnson's suicide started to leak out into small local newspapers around the States. Eventually, it made national headlines. Four others, each diagnosed with depression, also died by suicide while participating in the same trials.

According to an investigation by the London Independent newspaper, all five deaths were "hidden" by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA gave a legal rationale for its silence: "Some clinical trial data are considered 'trade secrets', or commercially protected information, and thus are exempted from release under the Freedom of Information Act."

The FDA has directed the manufacturers of all anti-depressant medications to add a "black box warning" that describes the increased risk of suicidal ideas and fixations in children and adolescents given anti-depressant medications.

Traci Johnson wasn't suffering from depression. She was part of a clinical test into a drug for stress urinary incontinence. Unknown to her, this drug was also being tested as an anti-depressant. I doubt she might have partaken in such tests if she'd known that nine months later the tablets she'd swallowed would carry a "black box" suicide warning.

Peter Breggin, MD, will speak at a day-long conference entitled 'Healing Depression without Drugs or Electric Shocks', next Saturday, October 21, at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin. Contact Ticketmaster.ie for details

Saturday, June 13, 2009

No, this title is not mine. It's from a Brazilian thinker and I've read it so many time ago that I forgot who is the author and I did not read the entire article just took a glimpse but I still have this phrase in my mind.I cannot come to a conclusion and I'm still thinking about it because I'm not even sure if romantic love has ever existed since I cannot point an era where the vast majority of people were happily married or in love for a lifetime.I've been hearing people of all ages telling about their love experiences. Most people are alone, men and women and some are discussing about love but I can see many ideas repeating themselves.Sex is easy but it's not a prerogative of any fight or a characteristic of our times.It has always been like even at Victorian age.I thought I had something definitive to say but it's still in my mind: Romantic love is over, welcome solitude.I believe there's a way out of this. Humans are not supposed to be alone although one has to know to be alone to be with someone else.

Friday, June 12, 2009

I have already written about SSRI-Sex group however it seems that it's a hard issue to raise for many reasons and obviously because sexuality is not a very easy issue to talk.I decided to publish one e-mail with the story of a member to make it easier to understand the problems people are facing.PSSD has an article at Wikipedia and is reported to physicians. However it seems to be something out of the planet to some doctors. Now it's being unfold that Paxil damages sperm as you can read here at Philip Dawdy's Furious Seasons.

"Hi all,I've been a member for 3/4 weeks now and I would like to share my experience with PSSD:I'm 32, male. Used Zoloft for Nov.2008 till end of Feb..2009 (close to 4 months). Started with low dose (probably 20 mg and increased it to 40 briefly when I started having tinnitus. So, reduced it to 20, didn't help with the tinnitus. So, tapered off of it after taking 10mg for about a week.) So, all this lasted for about 4 months. And needless to say, soon after started taking it, sexual dysfunction started (trouble getting aroused, lack of morning erections, etc). I didn't notice this in the initial days as I was masturbating by watching porn and didn't have much difficulty getting or maintaining an erection. But towards the end of this 4 month period, I noticed some trouble getting an erection. But what followed after the withdrawal from SSRI was worse. About 2/3 weeks after completely stopped taking zoloft, I started having erectile dysfunction. My PCP did the bloodwork, treadmill test etc for heart functioning etc and found nothing wrong. He offered to give Viagra, which I declined, because only I knew that he was treating the wrong symptom. My ED was not because of circulation problems or anything like that. My symptoms included trouble getting aroused, lack of interest in sex/masturbation, lack of sensation down there, no pleasure in orgasm, ED, soft erections, delayed orgasm, no interest in talking to the opposite sex, etc. Basically I was like living while dead. I tried using L-arginine for the ED, but had to stop it because of severe heartburn, which was a side effect of it. So, wouldn't know if that would have helped. And just when I was about to give up and prepare for the long haul, one day it happened. I got slightly aroused one day while thinking about the opposite sex. 2 days after this, I woke up with an erection. And this recovery is into the 2nd week now and while I still have soft erections, I do seem to get an erection when I want it. The libido seems to be coming back slowly. And ability to have feeling like pleasure, sadness and anger seem to be coming back as well. After going thru this for a little more than 2 months, I'm in 2nd week of recovery. I'm not yet at a pre-SSRI level sexually, but I'll take what I can get. Ya only thing I did differently 1 or 2 days before the recovery was do some yoga. I can't say if it helped because it was just 1 day. But it doesn't hurt to do some yoga & exercise & eating right."

This is one of many testimonies.

UPDATE:There is not a single member of this group that has an authentic profile not even it's owner.This is a pale idea of what is really going on.There are many messages and some of them only a person from another planet would read it without crying.People from the group want their problems to be heard that is one of the reasons I have published two posts about the group that strangely enough is not known by those who should be highly interested in the problem: psychiatrists.There's only one (1) video at YouTube of a man who had the guts to tell his story.I'm sure I'm helping others to know about the problem and if Vornan, the group's owner, thought that I'm causing any harm to any person he would have come here.I follow this group since it's creation in 2005.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

...the main reason why I started this blog: GREEDand BAD SCIENCE.For all of those who are profiting at the expenses of other people health, suffering, and lives, those who see money as an end in itself no matter what the consequences.Amazingly enough they are few compared to the huge amount of people who are severely harmed by the medicaments they sell.I want to thank all my blog friends who have helped me thought this year and Traci Johnson, the photo of my avatar, whose smile has helped me keep going.I know somewhere up there she is happy.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The British Bruce Lee, who has been using all his skills and weapons to bring the truth on Paxil/Seroxat, just shot a post on detox clinics for SSRi's withdrawal.But we were told that SSRIs are not addictive over and over again. Why on earth there are private clinics in UK to help people tapering these drugs?There are plenty data here and all over the Web claiming that not only these drugs are highly addictive but that they are the hell to withdraw. Bob Fiddaman found out this insightful paragraph:Treating addiction to antidepressants is therefore among the most difficult of all addictions to treat, precisely because its true nature is so poorly understood and because doctors may inadvertently work against the best clinical interests of their patients. Faced with the prospect of a suicide, doctors often reach for a prescription pad so that they can be seen to be "doing" something. However, when a successful suicide has used antidepressants the doctor is not blamed but thought to have done his or her best to "help" the patient. Nothing could be further from the truth. Prescribing a mood-altering drug makes it less likely that the patient will find a solution to internal as well as external problems because the sense of equanimity is artificially induced. -Dr Robert Lefever

Monday, June 08, 2009

As many people are not aware that SSRIs and SNRIs are powerful drugs that have serious side effects and withdrawal is a hell I'm reposting this. One of the stories is about long lasting withdrawal symptoms after being off Effexor.

"I've saved these two stories on July 21,2005 from the site drugawareness.org. Unfortunately the site has changed and the database of 276 stories are no longer online. Two of them are here. Get the Kleenex.

This is Survivor Story number 24.Total number of stories in current database is 276

12/15/2003The Effexor NightmareThe drug company should have let us known that this could happen to us.

Six years ago I had became very depressed. Little did I know that depression ran in our family, starting with my grandmother, my mother and then myself.

I tried for three long agonizing years to beat the beast in my life. Finally, I decided to go and talk to my doctor about my depression and she put me on Paxil. I don't even remember half of what I did for about a month. All I could do was cry and sleep. She then decided to put me on Effexor, which has been just as bad. I have gained so much weight that I find myself still depressed.

In all I have gained 53 pounds. I also have other side effects that I had no idea the Effexor was causing until I starting researching the drug. I have muscle tremors that my doctor put me on seizure medicine for. I also have headaches, and I cannot sleep. An example is that I am writing this and it is almost three in the morning and I get up at five to get my children ready for school. This is another problem. I do not feel like doing anything because I feel numb almost all the time and if I forget to take my medicine I become very aggressive and outspoken in a very ugly manner and this is not the person I am nor do I want to continue to be this way.

I don't feel like cooking, cleaning, washing, or doing everyday activities and I also have problems with my memory and that is a bad thing when you have children to do things for everyday, and it takes a toll not only on me but my family. I am only 33 and I want to be able to live a normal life and that will never be until I get this medicine out of my system. I want to be a good wife and mother, and not have my family suffer with me through this hell. If I had known what this crap would do to me I would have never swallowed that first pill. I will continue to pray for all those that are taking the drug Effexor and I hope that you will do the same for me.

Maybe, just maybe we can beat this addiction to a drug that was suppose to help us overcome depression. And the drug company should have let us known that this could happen to us. What if it was their wife, their child, or their relative that had to live the Effexor nightmare? Would it make a difference to them then or would it be just another dollar in their pockets?Gary Kelleyflycaster@earthlink.net

This is Survivor Story number 199.Total number of stories in current database is 276

7/1/2000Unprepared for the Horrendous Withdrawal from Effexor (with an update 4 months later)

"Sometimes it felt as if my brain was shuddering in my skull…"I realize that this is what most would consider a long letter. However, it is only a brief summation of my own personal experience. Please, especially those of you who are parents or grandparents, teachers or counselors, just take the two minutes it takes to read it, then just put it in the back of your mind. Or pass it on.

Anti-depressants are quite often being cavalierly dispensed to the population in general. Also, they are prescribed to help kids who've been on Ritalin for years get through the difficult process of the cessation of that drug. And now the manufacturers of these drugs are planning to produce it in smaller doses for their next target population: pre and elementary school aged children! These drugs have a very high percentage rate of undesirable and sometimes dangerous side effects.

Several years ago I broke my wrist, which caused me to develop a rare condition known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. One of the medications I was given to try to control the pain was Effexor. Effexor is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, or an SSRI. These drugs are commonly known as anti-depressants. Prozac is probably the most commonly known drug in this class. I was on this drug for less than 6 months when, for reasons of my own, I decided I wanted to get off. That's when my nightmare began.

One cannot just stop taking these drugs. There is a tapering off process which must be followed. This is because there are very often serious and debilitating withdrawal symptoms. However, I was not told of these symptoms, and I now know that the doctor did not know about them, either. He told me only that nightmares were a common occurrence during this process, and that I might also experience "mild, flu-like" symptoms and "slight confusion." During this initial, original prescribed tapering off process, which was supposed to take about 2 weeks, I experienced vivid and terrifying nightmares. I could not shake these off for hours after I had wakened. Since I was extremely tired, I napped a lot. Each time I napped, there would be a nightmare, and the process would repeat itself several times daily. I really was unprepared for their intensity and lasting after-images.

Then came the day I was to stop taking it. To make a long story short, these were some of my symptoms: A weird visual thing would happen for about a second, about 4 times a minute. I can only compare it to what it feels like to try to track the arrow of the mouse across the page. But I knew it was not my eyes that were doing this, I could feel it was my brain. (October, 2000: I've just found out that the term for this is "staccato vision"). I also experienced what people who have this call a sensation "like electric shocks" or "jolts" to my whole body which also occurred for a split second every 15 seconds or so. When these occurred at night, in the dark, they were accompanied by a flash of white light. It's as if I were "whiting out" (instead of "blacking out") for just a split second every 15 seconds or so. These incidents began to increase in intensity and began to be accompanied by panic and/or paranoia flashes. Eventually, just moving caused such dizziness and disorientation that I had to hold onto whatever was around me to walk. Sometimes it felt as if there were a magnet to one side of me, pulling me that way. The "slight confusion" I experienced is something I can only imagine is what beginning Alzheimer's patients must feel like during the initial stages of their eventually terminal mental decline during the time when they are still aware that something is really going wrong. Sometimes it felt as if my brain was shuddering in my skull a sensation that has come to be called "Brain Shivers" or "Brain Flips" by many. Numerous other things were happening as well, but I don't want to get too long-winded here. I just want to give you all some idea of some of the kinds of things that were happening.

So, I made an appointment with the prescribing doctor, and a friend was kind enough to take me there. But the doctor did not believe me! He said that it couldn't be the Effexor, that I probably had some neurological problems and that if the symptoms persisted, I should see a neurologist. But I KNEW it was the Effexor, so I went home, took another pill, and felt fine within the hour. Then I got on the 'net. What I found there was astounding! Tons of people, all with the same things happening to them, reaching out to anonymous others and saying, "Help! What is happening to me?" These I found on bulletin boards, NOT on product information sites put up by the people who are selling the stuff.

I tried calling the Drug Company to find out what was happening to me and how to stop it. I never did reach them. Fortunately for me, my primary care physician had heard of these symptoms and knew how to deal with them. She advised a long, slow tapering off process, telling me that it could take one to two months for me to be able to get off. Also fortunately for me, she told me to take as long as I needed.

It took me 10 MONTHS! During that time, the symptoms mentioned above continued, although diminished enough for me to be able to function almost normally. But other things began to happen. I saw things out of the corners of my eyes, which were not there. We all do that, but this was pretty constant. One thing I saw which I never told anyone about until it had stopped was a big, hairy rat about 1 foot long, scurrying around corners. Keep in mind that I was not on this drug because I was in any way mentally unbalanced, it was merely to help with the pain. I saw, and still see occasionally, a pinpoint of violet shimmering light. Also, things would seem to be moving out of the corners of my eyes. A spot on the wall, for example, I would think was a spider crawling until I looked directly at it, when I would realize it was just a spot on the wall. These things did not scare me, but they were frequent and startling and bothersome.

I took my last little crumbs of Effexor in September of 1999. End of story?

Unfortunately, no. It is now the end of July, 2000, and I still experience some of the same symptoms, although they are manageable. I also have experienced monstrous headaches. The first one, back in September, lasted 4 days. I thought I was going to die. I even told my son that I might die. I debated about that for a while, but did not want him to wake up and find me dead one morning. Fortunately, I'm still here. My headaches began to decrease in length, and now they seem to last only 2 hours or so. They go away within one minute. Sometimes I'm just achy all over. I guess that experience is the "mild, flu-like" symptoms I'd been warned about. I still have days I call "my stupid days", and they usually signal the beginning of episodes lasting several days, involving vertigo, dizziness, short anxiety attacks, some euphoria occasionally, the "brain shivers", and numerous other weird symptoms, and culminating in a headache. Then I'm fine for however long it lasts. Sometimes I feel whole body tremors, not enough to make me twitch, and they are not unpleasant, but they're there and they shouldn't be.

I am concerned about this. I want to know why, after not taking this drug for so long, I am experiencing this "discontinuation syndrome", and when will it stop? I have not yet found the answer.

I finally did get in touch with the Drug Company to ask them these questions and they took down all my information. They have never explained why, and they have never followed up. They would not talk to me about my symptoms, they would only talk with my doctor. And this was not OK because the doctor did not believe me! (This was not the prescribing doctor who hadn't believed me when I first tried to get off, this was the doctor who'd prescribed the tapering off process.) But I told her to call them and talk to them, and it was pretty easy for them to shine her on, since she didn't believe me anyway. And they sent her a letter advising a slow tapering off of the drug, which I'd already done, of course, AND a "report" from a closed symposium on SSRIs sponsored by the a drug company 'way back in 1996! (Which, of course, did not address the issue.)

The more research I've done on these things, the angrier I become. Because the drug companies have known about these things for years. Many people and their families have gone through much, much worse than I have. Some people have never been able to get off the drugs.

Now, what would YOU do if you were manufacturing these things? You'd probably say' "Whoa! We need to stop selling these things until we can find out what's causing this. We'd better get in touch with each and every one of those people who are having these extreme reactions, do whatever we can to help them, and to identify what it IS about them that makes them react differently than those who have no problems with the medication." Well, not only are these companies not doing this, they are manufacturing the drugs in smaller doses so that CHILDREN can take them! Yes, Prozac is currently being tested on pre-school aged children! And although these drugs have not YET been approved for use in children, the numbers of children aged 6-12 being prescribed Prozac has risen from 41,000 in 1995 to 203,000 in 1996. Currently, in 2000, 2.3 million children in the U.S. are on anti-depressants. The official literature on these drugs says that they are safe for pregnant women to take! And there are documented cases of newborns being born with the more evident withdrawal symptoms (which the drug companies are ignoring because nobody can prove it. Isn't that horrible?!). The companies that manufacture these things are re-naming Prozac "Seraphim" or something and doctors are prescribing it for PMS!

Are these drugs harmful to absolutely anyone who takes them? Of course not. And for many, these drugs have proven to be beneficial. However, they are NOT only being prescribed for major, long-term depressions, but for such things as the Holiday Blues and teenage angst! But the percentage risk for horrible and even deadly side effects is extremely high. (See the 3rd link below.)

Please, unless you are chronically depressed or have something really, really severe, stay away from this class of drugs. And please, NEVER EVER put a child on these things! I am an intelligent, articulate, resourceful middle-aged woman. When a wave of panic starts to wash over me, or any other of these weird things start to happen, I can tell myself to just hold on, it's just the after-effects of the drug, it will go away, I should take a deep breath and relax, etc. Do you think a child or a newborn could do the same? I can't imagine what it would be like to be a child in school and to suffer the kind of confusion I've been through and manage to learn anything, let alone be involved in a physical activity or sport! This has been going on for nearly 2 years with me, and I don't know when it will end!

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. This has been a BRIEF synopsis of what my life has been like for the past two years. And it's nothing compared to what others have been through.

Update, October, 2000:

In the few months since I wrote this, I found that these continued withdrawal effects after not haven taken the drug for a long time is a phenomena which has not one but two names: PANES (Persistent Adverse Neurological Effects) and "Intractable Withdrawal". This phenomenon was noted as early as 1996, before I began taking Effexor. How can the pharmaceutical companies deny the existence of something that has occurred enough to even have a name?

Several months ago I was driving with my son on the freeway at night and I felt fine. Out of the blue, a wave of disorientation and that peculiar form of dizziness I associate with my "Effexor Episodes" came upon me. I found myself in the middle of two lanes with no remembrance of which one I had come from. I was too scared to look in the rear view mirror to see what was behind me. I heard my son yell, "What are you doing?" A car was breaking to the left of me. I asked my son which lane I should go into and he told me to go right. Fortunately the freeway was not crowded. I was dizzy and scared and felt as if I was going to pass out. Soon there was an exit and I took that off the freeway and my son continued the drive home. I have not driven at night since.

I am a 50 year old woman with an excellent driving record. I made it. I feel sure that if there had been more cars on the freeway there would've been a terrible accident. Children from the ages of 6 up are being prescribed these drugs. They are getting their learners permits and at age 16 are given driver's licenses after passing very easy tests. Maybe you or a loved one will be in a car next to one someday. Maybe you'll be in an airplane piloted by a pilot who's missed a dose, directed by an air traffic controller who's trying to get off this stuff. Maybe you'll be next to a taxicab driver or a bus driver or a commuter who is suddenly euphoric or has a momentary panic attack. I won't drive at night, and am careful about where and when I drive in the daytime. But I really don't think that many can afford to do that. I think they'll just drive and hope for the best. And that is really, really scary to me.Louise Mangan

Thursday, June 04, 2009

I'm reposting it because there are some excerpts of the report the UK parliament did in 2005 that reveals what is known by the UK government. They know all the problems - the report raises many problems - and they also know the solutions but nothing changes.

"You all must know about Charles Medawar's work. It was on his site where I found support to taper Effexor. As I already said I used to write online and now I don't have access to the messages I wrote because the discussion board is unavailable.I've just found one comment.It was written on August 5, 2005 and it's a response for a journalist who asked why people were put on SSRIs. The journalist was from BBC and he was collecting data for the second Panorama on Paxil/Seroxat.This is the only answer I've saved:

"The report "The Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry" is something that should be recognized by all citizens in UK as something of great value in promoting health and stopping the abuse of drugs for any problem. Drugs that are sometimes very harmful like the SSRIs and this report has important views on this problem.

At page 6 it's reported:

Inappropriate prescription of medicines by GPs is of particular concern. Some have prescribed SSRIs, for instance, on a grand scale.

But I defy you to go to a psychiatrist reporting anxiety or some problem and not to be put on any drug whether a benzodiazepine or a SSRI. It’s a problem that although, “About 650 million prescriptions are written each year by GPs alone.” is beyond specialization."We, patients, should put it aside and focus on the side effects, withdrawal symptoms, permanent neurological problems.Been a specialist does not mean that he or she is able to understand the problem. Psychiatrists, that were supposed to know everything that is at stake when they prescribe SSRIs, still do not know either how to cope with side effects or help patients to withdraw the drug. They say we have to stand side effects.They do not rely on our reports, don't know how to recognize withdrawal symptoms, do not know that you can have withdrawal symptom after months out off the SSRI and prescribe these drugs that causes serious harm as if it was a painkiller.Here is an issue very important (p. 7):"The Government should, as a matter of urgency, fund research into the costs of drug-induced illness."Sometimes I get a little afraid that the industry starts creating highly amount of drugs to treat the problems they created the iatrogenic diseases. Will we have to pay more expensive drugs?This is terrifying:“The drugs are produced by a very large and successful industry. It employs 83,000 people directly and many more indirectly, and makes a huge contribution to the balance of trade each year. Overall, the industry represents the country ’s third most profitable economic activity, after tourism and finance. It is of great importance to the UK economy.” p.9And: p. 10

“7.The timing of this Inquiry coincided with an investigation by the medicines regulator into the safety of the newer ‘SSRI ’ antidepressant drugs, and we refer to these drugs to illustrate some concerns. Depression can be a severely disabling and life-threatening condition, when urgent treatment is needed, but only about 5% of all prescriptions are written for ‘severe ’ depression, and about two-thirds are for forms of depression classified as ‘mild depression"– i.e. mainly for people who are unhappy and distressed by difficult situations and circumstances. Although it is often suggested that antidepressant drugs will help these people, there is no good evidence that they will. Most people prescribed SSRIs in such circumstances can expect modest benefits, but are exposed to substantial risks of harm.”

I will keep on reading and believe that any person who is really concerned about this problem, especially physicians and patients, should read this report.That’s why I say that everything is out in the open. The important is to have the courage to explain the truth.If a report like this cannot make a difference, and surely will not, for as mentioned above “Overall, the industry represents the country’s third most profitable economic activity”.Nobody, nothing can stop it.But let’s wait that everything that is proposed in this important document such as in the part of what are the actions Government can take p.95:

325.Government has a number of areas of responsibility for medicines. It must act as sponsor for UK-based drug companies to encourage a thriving and competitive industry, it must maintain oversight of the regulatory system and ensure that mechanisms and incentives are in place so that the industry acts in a way that is consonant with the Government ’s public health aims.

“327.Government has been slow to see the importance of these areas, perhaps because the pharmaceutical industry funds such a great proportion of other medical research. The industry cannot be expected to fully fund areas of research that are not directly in its interest, however, and so it falls to Government to address areas of need such as non-drug treatments, combination studies and iatrogenic illness.” p. (95)

347. Although the case of Seroxat has been described in greater detail elsewhere in this report,it is worth noting here that,in additional information provided to the Committee on the basis of the EWG ’s report on SSRIs,it has been shown that suicidal thoughts and hostility are twice as common in patients receiving Seroxat in the month following drug withdrawal as in those receiving placebo. Data contained in the licence application itself cited studies in which withdrawal symptoms were common. Yet for years the MHRA maintained that withdrawal symptoms were rare, affecting of the order of 0.1 –0.2% of patients. The Agency now acknowledges that 20 –30%of patients might experience withdrawal symptoms when stopping SSRIs.

351."The belief that every problem may be solved with medication seems particularly relevant in the context of antidepressants. While we readily accept that antidepressants can be effective medicines and have been successfully used by many patients, it is also clear that SSRIs, in particular, have been over-prescribed to individuals, often with mild forms of depression, who may be distressed by difficult life circumstances. Unhappiness is part of the spectrum of human experience, not a medical condition."

You all in UK have this powerful weapon on your hands.Everyone who is concerned with the SSRIs problems should make an effort to remember your politicians and regulators to make it all work as soon as possible.I would like to stress that Mr. Charles Medawar has a great deal of influence on this for as you can see at page 12:

14 .We are also very grateful for the expert guidance we received from our specialist advisers. They were: Professor John Abraham, Department of Sociology, University of Sussex; Professor Joe Collier of St George’s Medical School; Professor Gerard Hastings, University of Stirling; Charles Medawar, Executive Director of Social Audit Ltd; and Dr Harriet Scorer, an independent consultant to the pharmaceutical industry.

I do not know him, I live In Rio de Janeiro, knew all about him here in this site and became aware about this report here.I admire all the effort he is doing in creating Socialaudit, and above all, he was the one who gave us a place to share all these hideous problems we are facing and to exchange our experiences giving advices to each other in order to heal ourselves an effort physicians has failed and did not even pay any attention to our words. In doing that it is impossible to say that nothing is happening.All the testimonies here are off inestimable value to assure that SSRIs are not what the Pharmaceutical Industry claim they are.Because of all these testimonies it became impossible to keep on denying that these drugs are not harmful.Now it is about time to help him making pressure in order the solutions that are proposed can get out of the paper"

I will have to start moderating comments.I never had to let unpublished any comment but it seems those days are over. If the content of the comment has nothing to do with the post or if I notice that it's provocative I will delete it.That is the way democracies are run nowadays, isn't it?Do you see what we write on our blogs being covered by the mainstream media?That's very democratic not revealing that during the clinical trials of Cymbalta four people have died Traci Johnson being one of them:a healthy 19 years-old girl who wanted to make money to help her studies and was testing this drug for urinary incontinence hanged herself at Eli-Lilly's facilities in February, 2004.Sarah Carlin...Are these facts being reported?HOW DEMOCRATIC!I have already believed that free-speech was for real.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

I've found three comments from the SocialAudit discussion board that is not available now.There was a person whose nick was ANON who helped a lot. One of my messages to him with some details of the many withdrawal symptoms I fell:

Anon,Thanks very much. You are always so kind and it helps too much to hear your words.Today I slept a lot and the dizziness went away.My body seems to be back to normal.I'm feeling hot again, 30º explains that:))Everybody was at the swimming pool the last two weeks and I was feeling a little bit cold.Now I'm sweating because it is very, very hot. It's amazing, is it not? I'm so glad I'm sweating for a real reason. Hope this night I will sweat for it's hot.But you cannot imagine how precious was to hear what you said. It was a reliefWe always doubt our feelings, that is the message that I came here to tell.When I was feeling the dizziness and all strange feelings I remembered all I had heard about it and always thought "lucky me I did not feel strange brain sensations and the zaps".When it appeared I was "suspicious" it was withdrawal although I have read many reports about it.I also want to tell you that I'm fine today only a little scared because it was a terrible sensation.Yesterday I though I would be like that for the rest of my life or maybe I had a terrible disease.It is silly to say this. But if you are experiencing any kind of this terrible withdrawal symptoms do not doubt and bear in mind that IT IS WITHDRAWAL.The problem is that the sensations are so terrible and we have nobody to report them and hear: "Hold on. It is "normal". It is withdrawal and it will go away."That's all we want to hear. This is the only help we need that moment.But we do not have anybody to tell us that.So we suffer the pain and the fear of not being sure about what is going on. And it has already been highly reported that when we tell our physicians they do not understand and comes up with lots of diagnoses and do not recognize WITHDRAWAL.Unfortunately physicians, even the good and serious, are still unaware of a lot of what is going on.It seems to me that the real good help comes from people who have suffered and kept on studying in order to heal themselves and help others.I was feeling terrible and was emotionally terrible. I cannot go to any psychiatrist for I'm sure that I will hear that I'm depressed or that the despair comes from me. They still do not know about this kind of CHEMICAL DESPAIR. It does not come from the heart. First you start crying for no reason and after that you have reasons enough to be in real despair. The circle is something like this:1) chemical despair appears (I've noticed that I start crying I frown and my forehead aches. It's different when I cry for a REAL reason. It starts in my heart I cry and tears comes naturally. I cry for some minutes, it stops and you have a break. In the chemical crying the tears are scarce and it seems endless and there is no connection to any trouble you have);2) you get desperate because it is too, too painful and you cannot stop it;3) it is impossible to stop the chemical despair using the same weapons we use to cope with bad emotions we have in our lives. There is no way to say to yourself "- Ok! Enough is enough. I have already suffered and now it is time to get a shower and move on. I will take a walk, do something..."4) we often have to suffer this alone for people do not understand and will start telling us that "you must do this and that". So, another reason to despair: guilty.What an ordeal!I'm feeling not very "close to reality" lately. Can you imagine if I tell this to any physician and also that I cannot concentrate, feeling irritated and apathetic?It's getting better and I feeling that this week things will be easier. But we never know. I believe that we all share the feeling: ME after SSRIs - ME during SSRIs - ME withdrawing SSRI - ME after SSRI.What I want to tell you is that TRUST your FEELINGS. Keep on reading, searching, reading the reports that are all over the Web.ANON, thanks again. What about you? Are you feeling better? You give so many advices but we also care about you. Have a Happy New Year, you deserve to have a wonderful year and recover from all the harm this drug has caused

Monday, June 01, 2009

I've just took a glimpse at a post D Bunker wrote about psychiatry and the holocaust. I guess we will never stop asking ourselves about the origin of humans capability on doing harm to others deliberately.It sounds even silly to raise this issue but I don't know if it's me who has been noticing too much or it's a real fact.I'm a little confused about what I'm really thinking so I will raise some points:

1 - atrocities catch more attention in the media than a good action;2 - it seems to me that people are getting so overexposed to evil that a father that keeps his daughter in captivity for more than 20 years and had seven children with her does not cause the horror a news like this would thirty years ago (is it me or do you feel the same?);3 - in my country instead of claiming you from the police it's better to say you are a bandit. The other person will feel more scary. I wonder if at other countries it's better to say you belong to any gang;4- I don't know...

I have been questioning about being at the "evil side". It seems to me that it's out in the open and it makes some people proud to harm others.I hope it makes some sense and I have made myself clear.

Please allow me to introduce myselfI'm a man of wealth and tasteI've been around for a long, long yearStole many a mans soul and faithAnd I was round when Jesus ChristHad his moment of doubt and painMade damn sure that PilateWashed his hands and sealed his fatePleased to meet youHope you guess my nameBut whats puzzling youIs the nature of my gameI stuck around st. PetersburgWhen I saw it was a time for a changeKilled the czar and his ministersAnastasia screamed in vainI rode a tankHeld a generals rankWhen the blitzkrieg ragedAnd the bodies stankPleased to meet youHope you guess my name, oh yeahAh, whats puzzling youIs the nature of my game, oh yeahI watched with gleeWhile your kings and queensFought for ten decadesFor the gods they madeI shouted out,Who killed the Kennedys?When after allIt was you and meLet me please introduce myselfI'm a man of wealth and tasteAnd I laid traps for troubadoursWho get killed before they reached BombayPleased to meet youHope you guessed my name, oh yeahBut whats puzzling youIs the nature of my game, oh yeah, get down, babyPleased to meet youHope you guessed my name, oh yeahBut whats confusing youIs just the nature of my gameJust as every cop is a criminalAnd all the sinners saintsAs heads is tailsJust call me Lucifercause I'm in need of some restraintSo if you meet me....

This is Rolling Stone's "Sympathy for the Devil", 1968. By that time it seems that there was still some... I don't know... lolHelp me or I will start talking about the deconstruction of individuality... arg...I'm amazed about how much is being said about Hitler and the holocaust. I always see it as a way of putting the evil in the past and don't look at what is happening now and history keeps on repeating itself. There are lots of refined ways to inflict pain to others in our days or perhaps every era can say it.There are far too many people being violently and criminally suffering. As always they are silenced. Their story will be told i the future at the schools.